A Winged Romance
by xxluv4everxx
Summary: Headaches, heartbreaks, romance, adventure, Fax, Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, The Gasman and Angel... what more could you ask for?
1. Headaches and Confusion

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Maximum Ride characters (they're James Patterson's)**

**Max POV**

"Fang..." I whimpered. This is so unlike me, I don't whimper...

"Um... no, it's Iggy." Iggy sounded confused, I absentmindedly wondered why.

"Where's Fang?"

"He went out to get food, remember?" _Whaaaaaat? _Crap, this wasn't good. First of all, I couldn't remember Fang leaving to get food. And second, why on Earth would I want _Fang _when I'm in pain?

"Max?" Gazzy sounded small and scared.

I must look awful right now. I couldn't remember any thing that had happened earlier today- all I knew was that this was one of my grenade headaches (worse than ever, which was odd because I hadn't had one in almost a year), but the voice wasn't telling me anything and I wasn't seeing any images flashing through my head. I also wanted nothing more than for Fang to hold me... oh, my god- did I just say I wanted nothing more than for Fang to hold me?! Suddenly, Angel's voice broke through my weird thoughts.

_It's okay Max. _My headache had died down enough for me to answer her in my head, which of course she could hear.

_What's okay, sweetie?_

_That all you want is for Fang to hold you. _I felt the blood rush to my face as she sent this thought to me and I heroically suppressed a flow of swear words from running through my head (and out of my mouth as well).

_Don't worry Max. He'll be back any second. Ooooh! And he's thinking about you too!_

_Angel, honey, is that good or bad?_ I heard her actually giggle aloud next to me.

_It's good of course silly. Don't worry so much. Fang loves you and if he were here right now-- which he will be in about a minute-- he would be holding you. _She added simply.

_Are you guessing he would be doing that? _I had to know.

_No, I sent him a thought explaining what happened... I don't think he wanted me to hear those parts, but I did, so there. _Before I could respond, I heard feet running towards us, and right then my head exploded with a searing pain again.

"Fang..." I whimpered again, unable to stop myself from saying it.

**Fang POV**

_Fang! Please you have to come help! _Angel begged.

_What's wrong?_

_Please! Hurry! It's Max! _She didn't have to say- or think, I guess- anymore, though I knew she would. If something was wrong with Max of course I'd go back in a heartbeat. I mean I loved her, wait a minute... did I just say I loved Max?! Whoa.

_She collapsed! I think it's one of those headaches! _If Max collapsed that meant this was pretty bad, though those headaches were **so** hard on her. I really wished I was there holding her like I did when she had gotten them before. I heard Angel giggle.

_What? _I thought

_She finally sort of wakes up- well, without opening her eyes- and the first word out of her mouth is "Fang," oh, and I think it's sooo sweet you want to be here holding her...it really shows how much you love her! _

I decided not to reply to Angel and just focus on getting back to where I left Max and the rest of the flock less than an hour ago.

The clearing came into view, and as I lost altitude I saw them all huddled around something that had to be Max. I landed and started sprinting over to them. I heard Max whimper,

"Fang." And then she cried out in pain. I dropped everything I was holding behind the flock, who were already moving so that I could get to Max. Without a second thought, I sat down, picked her up, and cradled her to me, afraid to hold her to tight because right now she looked so fragile. About a minute later, cried out in pain again, wincing at the same time.

"Fang!" Her voice sounded so pained and broken, but she wasn't just whimpering, she was crying out for me. I held her tighter.

"Yeah, I'm here. It's okay now... you're okay." I said as I pulled her in as close as I could.


	2. Holding on Tight and Crying my Eyes Out

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Maximum Ride characters (nope, they're all James Patterson's)**

**Max POV**

God, what _was _I doing? I had been curled up on the ground clutching my head, but now someone had picked me up and was holding me to them... Fang. All of a sudden another grenade of pain exploded in my head. Without meaning to I cried out,

"Fang!" I felt him pull me even closer and then,

"Yeah, I'm here. It's okay now... you're okay." And surprisingly, now that he was with me, now that he was holding me, it felt like I was going to be okay. I heard Angel giggle again and I knew she was laughing at what I had just thought.

"Ig, maybe you should take the little guys over there and eat." I heard Fang suggest. Iggy must have nodded because I heard them all get up and walk away. I didn't realize until now that I had been hyperventilating, so I tried to slow my breathing.

Once I did, I started crying. No, not crying... bawling. I could barely hear Fang's, "Shhhh, it's going to be alright." Eventually I quieted down to just silently crying. I actually managed to get out one word though... the main word I'd been saying since this started.

"Fang." Was my word of choice, apparently.

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**Fang POV**

"Fang." She whispered softly. I had just been holding her and stroking her hair for probably around 10 minutes. I looked down at her face.

Tears were still running down her face, her eyes still squeezed shut, and her hands still holding her head. Her light brown hair was getting wet from her tears and I tucked her hair behind her ears. And then very slowly, she took her hands away from her head, as if expecting her skull to fall apart if she moved them. Her big, brown eyes opened very slowly too. She looked around a little bit and then up at me.

"Thank you." Her voice was a little shaky and it broke twice while she said this, but at least she wasn't still holding her head with her eyes closed. I pulled her up into a sitting position on my lap and hugged her tightly. She seemed a little shocked but quickly put her arms around my neck.

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**Angel POV**

The sound of Max's sobs were heart wrenching. I wished there was something I could do. But Fang was holding her, just as they had both wanted and we were on the other side of the clearing eating. Her sobs quieted and I realized now she was just crying silently.

_I wish I could stop her pain somehow_. I heard Fang think.

_I wish I could too. _I sent that thought back to him. Then awhile later I heard Max speaking to Fang so quietly.

"Fang." I heard her whisper.

_Man, she's so beautiful. _Fang probably forgot that I could hear that when he thought it.

"Thank you." She said to him a minute later, though she was not replying to what he had just thought. I looked over and saw him pull her into a sitting position, and putting his arms around her waist.

_Whoa, Fang hugging? Well, this is new. _Max thought. I saw her then quickly put her arms around his neck and rest her head on his shoulder.

_Mmmm, I think I may like this side of Fang's personality better. _I giggled as Max thought that. Maybe we should give them some privacy... I decided to send the thought to both of them.

_Do you guys want some alone time together? _I asked both of them.

_Go where you want, just stay together and out of my head. _Max replied.

_Ask Max. _Fang thought.

_Can we go to the mall in town and meet up with you guys there? In the food court? _I asked.

_Ask Max. _Fang replied again.

_Sure, as long as you all stay together. _Max thought. I told the rest of the flock that we were going to go to the mall and meeting Max and Fang there later. Nudge and The Gasman were jumping up and down they were so happy. Iggy was smiling. So the four of us took off.

* * *

**Max POV**

I'm still not entirely sure why I gave Angel and the others permission to go, but it just seemed like the right thing.

Oh, crap... had Angel been controlling my mind? No, she can't have been, because it still feels like it was the right decision. Oh well, it was kind of hard for me to think coherently with Fang holding me like this. After about 20 minutes of sitting like that, I pulled back a little.

"We should probably get going. I told Angel we would meet her and the rest of the flock in the food court at the mall." He just nodded.

I unhooked his arms from around my waist and once I was off his lap he jumped up and pulled me gently into a standing position. I quickly found out that standing hadn't been that great of an idea because almost immediately I started to fall. Fang caught me, of course and kept his hands on my hips while he turned to face me.

"You know, maybe we should wait until you're stable enough." He said.

"I'm fine, let's just get going." He raised an eyebrow at me, shrugged, and then let go of me.

_He's totally going to get me for this. _I thought as the ground started swirling closer to my face. Again, he caught me around my waist, but this time stayed behind me with his arms wrapped around me.

"No, you're not. You can't even stand up on your own. How are you going to fly?" He whispered in my ear.

You know, I really hate logic, especially when it's said like that. Because as soon as he started whispering in my ear, I lost all train of thought. So _not _fair.

"I... um... I... well... maybe... uh... you're right." I sighed and he chuckled. I spun around, still in his arms, so that I could see his face.

"So how long do you think that will be?" I asked, genuinely curious at how long he wanted to stand here for.

"Hmm... well, obviously you won't be able to tell me," Fang paused to give me a sly smile. "I'm not sure." He studied my face for a second, then decided to pull me closer. I heard him sigh and was confused.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing." I knew he was lying to me, but I didn't feel like pressing the matter at the moment. I just shrugged. Maybe he'd tell me later.

"So, should we see if you can stand now." He sounded enthusiastic, in a very fake way. I nodded though and he slowly let go of me...

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**Oooooo! What will happen next? Please review guys!  
**


	3. Where is she!

**Disclaimer: _sigh, _how many times am I going to have to do this? I don't own any of the Maximum Ride characters... still.**

**Nudge POV**

Oh, my god. I, like, haven't talked at **all** for a loooong time today. Max had a brain attack and I was sooooo scared, so I wasn't really talking. But on the bright side, we're at the mall!

_Nudge, remember you have to stay with us. _Angel thought.

_Okay, I can do that. Just watch me. I'll be **so **good at staying with you guys. You always be able to see me. I'll be, like-_ Angel cut her off.

_Okay Nudge, I get it... all I needed was an okay from you._ This was going to be so much fun! We hadn't been to the mall in AGES!

"Where to first?" I asked innocently. Gazzy and Angel started laughing. I was practically bouncing up and down from excitement.

"Well, since I know that you have a specific place you want to go why don't you tell us." Iggy suggested.

"If you say so!" The I listed a huge, long list of places I want to go.

"OKAY NUDGE!" They all shouted.

"How about we split up. Gazzy and I will go together and Nudge, you and Angel can go together. How does that sound?" Iggy asked. We all agreed to it. Then Iggy gave each of us some money and said to meet up at the food court in two hours.

* * *

**Iggy POV**

I swear, sometimes Nudge talks so much I feel like my ears are going to start bleeding. Oh well, she was off with Angel now-- probably looking at clothes.

"Hey, Ig?"

"Yeah Gazzy?"

"They have a really cool looking electronics store right behind us. Can we go in?"

"Heck yeah!" I shouted and Gazzy pulled me in the direction of the store. It was the perfect place for people like Gazzy and me. I could sense there was a lot of stuff around us and Gazzy quickly described everything to me. This stuff was really high-tech... good. I smiled and Gazzy took me over to something to show me all it could do. It was amazing. This place was absolutely amazing.

* * *

**Angel POV**

I still felt as though maybe we had disobeyed Max by splitting up. I knew that Max didn't want to lose any of us again. That would be awful.

_Oh, my god that guy is **so** cute! _Nudge squealed in her head. I rolled my eyes. I guess Nudge loved finding cute guys. Awww, man! This guy was coming over to talk to her.

_Oh, my god! Oh. My. God!! _Nudge was practically jumping in her happiness that a guy was coming to talk to her.

_Ange, I'll be right over here talking to this guy. Why don't you go look in the toy store across from us and I'll come get you in a minute? _ I sighed. Well, alright, but if Max found out about this we would all be dead.

_Okay, I guess so... but only for a minute. _I thought back.

_Oh, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! _Nudge said happily in her head. I nodded to Nudge as I walked past her and into the toy store. Maybe I could find something for Celeste here.

I turned around to make sure Nudge was still there about five minutes later. Wait, hadn't I left Nudge right over there? Right next to that bench? I was almost sure I had. Now Nudge was gone.

I listened to all of the thoughts of the people in the crowd in front of me but couldn't hear Nudge anywhere. I was starting to panic.

_Calm down, Angel. _I told myself. _Maybe she just went around that corner over there to get a drink._

Yeah, that had to be where she had gone. And over there was just out of reach of where I could read her mind. I walked out of the toy store and turned the corner, sure that had been where Nudge had gone.

But I skidded to a halt when I saw that Nudge wasn't there. I was trying not to scream. I searched all over the level Nudge and I had been on before I had lost her. Then I went back to the toy store to see if she was looking for me.

_Nudge! Where are you?!_ I was trying so hard to keep from crying. Then it hit me-- why don't I just go find Gazzy and Iggy? They'd know what to do! Now, all I had to do was find an electronics store...

* * *

**The Gasman POV**

I felt like I was in heaven. There were so many cool electronic gadgets to play with. I was just explaining to Iggy what the label on one of the many cool gadgets said, when Angel came running up to us.

"Angel! What happened? Where's Nudge?" I gasped.

"I don't know! Nudge told me to go into the toy store and that she just wanted to talk to this guy for a minute. She said she'd come and get me, but I turned around five minutes later and she was gone! I checked that entire level! I couldn't even hear her thoughts!" Angel was close to tears, I could tell. Iggy was just standing there with his mouth hanging open. I grabbed Angel's hand and we ran out of the store, looking for Nudge. She had to be here somewhere.

"Angel, can you listen for her thoughts?" Iggy asked.

"Yeah, I'm listening real hard for them." She replied, her face screwed up in concentration.

"Just tell us if you hear her." I reminded her quickly. Angel nodded.

_Gazzy? _Angel thought.

_Yeah?_

_What if we don't find Nudge? _I swallowed hard. I had a feeling Angel would come up with this question. I took a deep breath.

_Then we go and wait by the food court. And if she doesn't show up then, we wait for Max and Fang. They'll know what to do. _I really hoped Max and Fang wouldn't find out about this though. They'd kill us for losing her. That seemed to dawn on Angel too, because she looked up at me with a worried expression.

_But Gazzy, Max didn't want us splitting up. And if they find out... we'll be in lots of trouble. _I shuddered just thinking about what Max and Fang would do to us for losing Nudge.

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**Dun dun dun! hahaha, thanks to macO'Niell and Burn95 for telling me to update and keep going, cuz if they hadn't it may have been a long time before I updated. Stay tuned to see what happens next!**


	4. Earth to Fang

**Yay! There are more reviews than I thought there would be by now! Okay so ginnylookalike42 asked if this is before or after The Final Warning. This takes place considerably after that, so the Lerner School plays no part in this story. **

**Oh, and sorry to Total and Akila fans, but it's kinda hard to write them, so they're not in this either. Sorry, but I hope you like this next chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Maximum Ride is not mine... still! JP owns it for the last chapters, this chapter, and the chapters after this... though I will (_sigh_) continue with the disclaimers.**

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**Fang POV**

I let go of Max so slowly, that I think she started to get a little impatient with me. Eventually, I let go of her completely and was happy to find that she didn't start falling again. She smiled, obviously glad that she wasn't as weak anymore.

"Are we going now, or are you going to tell me that I'm still too unstable?" I hesitated to answer her and she quizzically raised an eyebrow at me.

"Fine, we can go now." I responded. She smiled and started running forward.

_Wow, her wings are so beautiful... and so is she. Wait, what am I thinking?! It's Max, my best friend and the leader of the flock. I'm her right-hand man, not her boyfriend! But couldn't I be both? No! Come on, she doesn't like you like that! _I thought to myself.

* * *

**Max POV**

I was up in the air flying for only a few seconds when I realized Fang wasn't with me. I circled back and saw that he hadn't taken off yet... instead he was staring up at me. I landed and walked over to him.

"Aren't you coming?" I asked puzzled as to why he hadn't taken off at the same time I did. He was just staring at me. I stood there for a minute, then waved my hand in front of his face.

"Earth to Fang. Are you coming?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. Sorry, spaced out for a minute." He replied.

"'Kay. Let's go then." He didn't move. I sighed. I looked up at him and raised my eyebrows. He just kept staring at me. I rolled my eyes and grabbed his hand, pulling him forward with me as I ran to take off.

Once in the air, I didn't let go of his hand. I was afraid that if I did, he would just stay in one place.

"You're awfully quiet." He said. I smiled and shook my head.

"Hmm... _you _are accusing _me _of being too quiet. That's a little backward." I giggled. He rolled his eyes.

"So why are you being so quiet?" He asked. I shrugged, well... the best I could while flying.

"I guess I was just waiting till your brain returned." I teased. He rolled his eyes, again, and then looked down at our hands.

It hadn't really occurred to me that our fingers were still twined together and I was about to let go when he squeezed my hand. I looked up at him, shocked, to see him just looking away from me. I thought I could see him blushing, but I couldn't be completely sure. I mean, it's Fang we're talking about here. He never shows emotion.

We landed at an empty park a block from the mall. I dropped his hand, blushing, hoping he didn't find it too weird. Fang and I walked the remaining block to the mall and pushed open the heavy glass doors.

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**Well, there you go-- a little FAX for you, I promise there will be more FAX later! Sorry about another cliffhanger guys... I didn't mean to, but I just liked this ending and it seemed like a good way to end this chapter. Also sorry about how short this one was, I couldn't think of anyway to elabrate on this and I wanted to save the other guys searching for Nudge and stuff for the next chapter. Thanks! Please review!  
**


	5. Sprints, Screams, and too big of a Mall

**Thanks for all of the reviews! I'm trying to make my chapters a little longer. Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter posted, I've been preoccupied lately. **

**Oh and also sorry guys, the next few chapters may take me a while to write... I have the ending and maybe either a sequel or another Maximum Ride story planned out, but I don't completely know what's going to happen in the middle of this one yet. I'm just taking inspiration as it comes. Yeah, I know that sounds cheesy... deal with it. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own MR, blah blah blah, JP does... _sigh_, this gets real old real fast.**

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**Iggy POV**

_Nudge, where are you? Please let us find you right now..._ I thought to myself. We really needed to find Nudge, or Max and Fang were going to kill us... actually it would go something like this:

First, Max gets us (You know- yelling, screaming, a little bamboo under the fingernails- okay, I'm just joking about the last part... I don't_ think_ Max would do that to us).

Then, Fang kills us.

Next, Fang brings us back and 'gets us' again (Same as before, only in Fang's way).

And finally, Max kills us... again.

Yep, that was exactly what would happen if we didn't find Nudge, like, now! I could practically tell that Max and Fang were on their way here, and that they were almost here. Ugh, where is Nudge?!

* * *

**Angel POV**

Oh man, listening to all of these thoughts was killing me!

Now, most people aren't mind readers (like one's that actually _can _read minds, not the phony one's who say they can but really can't), so you wouldn't understand how much your head hurts after scanning peoples' minds for any sign of Nudge- which believe me, is a lot of minds and very hard to do while running through a mall.

We couldn't loose Nudge... we just couldn't.

_Nudge, where are you? Please let us find you right now... _I heard Iggy think. I was so scared that something had happened to Nudge. It had been almost a half an hour since I lost her outside of the toy store.

_Ugh, Nudge, why are you being so difficult?! _Gazzy thought loudly.

_It's okay Gazzy, we'll find her. _I tried to reassure him.

_But what if we don't? _He shot at me. I looked up at my big brother trying to silently question him, knowing my expression was confused and hurt, but that it would probably still get my point across. He looked down at me.

_I'm sorry Angel. I didn't mean it. We _will _find her, you're right. I'm just confused 'cause I don't know how. _He hung his head.

_It's okay. _I replied. I knew how he felt. The three of us were running through a mall searching for a girl who was about the same height as the majority of the people there.

* * *

**Max POV**

Fang and I pushed open the doors to the mall and immediately knew we were going to hate this place. There must have been like 5,000 people there (okay, I'm exaggerating, but there was a lot of people!). See this from my perspective:

You're in a mall (torture as it is) that's filled with people, in the middle of a pretty big (and very populated I may add) city in Ohio, looking for your four friends who are the same height as everyone else. Great.

Yeah, pretty weird from my point of view... what the _hell_ were we doing here? We walked over to the food court and didn't see Iggy, The Gasman, Angel or Nudge.

_Angel, where are you guys? _I thought, trying somehow to get it to Angel. No response. Of course, she must be to far away from me to actually hear it, that's all. But I was tensing up anyway.

It had been around an hour since the younger ones had left Fang and I in the clearing. I must have been shaking or something, because Fang put his arm around my shoulders.

"It's fine. They'll probably be here in a minute." He whispered in my ear. I nodded, afraid that if I spoke my voice would give away how scared I was that they wouldn't be here in a minute.

We stood there for about another five minutes when three people went sprinting past us. I immediately recognized them to be Iggy, Gazzy, and Angel. But where was Nudge? I looked at Fang and he nodded. We started to run after the three.

_Angel, honey, please stop running for a second. _I thought, hoping, once again, that it would actually reach Angel. This time it did.

_Max! When did you get here? _She asked.

_About ten minutes ago. Can you guys stop for a second? It's kind of hard to talk like this._

_Sure, hold on. Let me tell Iggy and Gazzy._ She replied. They all stopped a second later. I sighed in relief. Now I could talk to all of them, not just Angel. I looked at them.

Iggy was looking up at the ceiling (or rather, directing his eyes that way since he's blind and can't actually see the ceiling.) looking nervous and kind of guilty; Gazzy was staring at the floor twisting the hem of his shirt in his small hands, looking (once again) guilty and also sad; and Angel, my baby, looked so sad and tired it was hard to look at her.

I bent down and picked up Angel. She gave me a tiny smile and hugged me tight. No one said a word... but someone needed to. I figured I should, considering I'm the leader and all.

"So, does anyone want to tell me what's going on and where Nudge is?" I asked, highly doubting I would actually get an answer.

"Nudge is gone." Angel whispered so quietly in my ear. My eyes widened.

"What?" I asked, hoping I had heard her wrong.

"She's gone, and it's all my fault!" Angel said and then broke into tears. It absolutely broke my heart to see my baby like that.

"What happened?" Fang asked. Gazzy and Iggy shifted a little, while I clutched Angel in my arms. Angel sniffled.

"Well, Nudge and I were on the bottom level looking at clothes and toys and stuff. The guys were up one level at an electronics store--" I cut her off.

"Wait, you guys split up after I told you not to?" I asked, stunned that they didn't listen to me. Angel nodded sadly.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Max! I didn't think anything would happen! It's all my fault Nudge is gone!" She burst into tears again.

"Shh, shh, it's okay Angel. It's not your fault. This could have happened if you all were together." I rubbed her back hoping to calm her down. It worked a little. "Do you know where she went sweetie?"

"No. She told me to go into the toy store while she talked to a guy she thought was really cute. She said it would only take a second." I saw Iggy tense when Angel said that Nudge thought this guy was really cute, which made no sense. "And when I turned around five minutes later, she was gone and so was the guy!"

I looked over at Fang. I guess the anxiety and how afraid I was showed in my eyes because he moved closer to me and put his arm around my waist. Suddenly, we all heard a shriek from right outside the mall. Nudge.

I set Angel down. Then, I reached around my back and pulled Fang's arm off my waist. I barely registered how upset he looked from my doing that, but I grabbed his hand and interlaced my fingers and his without thinking. The upset expression was gone from his face, now he just looked determined.

I squeezed his hand and he squeezed mine back. We nodded to each other then sprinted out the doors of the mall with Iggy, Gazzy and Angel at our heels.

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**Sorry again, for how long that took. Like I said... I'm going to try and make my chapters longer-- I'm going to post another chapter ASAP! Thanks for reading! Please Review!  
**


	6. Fight?

**Really sorry it took so long to get this posted! It may take me more time to get the next few chapters up because school is starting in almost exactly a week, so I won't have as much time. _Sigh. _Oh well, not much I can do about that. I'll just write as often as I can. Please enjoy chapter 6!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own MR or anything from the books (such as Itex or the School- hehehe, kinda makes you wonder what's in this chapter... am I right?)**

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**Nudge POV**

Oh my god, what's going on? One minute I was walking around with this really cute guy and now I'm surrounded by flyboys and erasers. Wait, I thought all of the erasers were gone!

_Holy (insert swear word of your choice here)! _The cute guy just morphed into an eraser! What is wrong with this world! He lunged at me and I screamed as loud as I could.

* * *

**Max POV**

Okay, blood curdling screams are never a good thing, but at least this told us where Nudge was. We sprinted out of the mall in the direction we heard the scream come from.

Of course, it was out the back door of the mall... a usually deserted area, but now was filled flyboys and erasers. Where did the erasers come from?! I thought they were all 'retired!' I guess there were whitecoats with them too, because a bunch came from around a corner within the next few seconds.

Then I noticed someone, my eyes automatically narrowed and my gaze became an icy glare.

_Jeb._

I cannot believe he has the nerve to show himself in front of us again. I looked at the rest of the flock.

Angel was glaring at Jeb in almost the exact way I was; Gazzy looked severely confused and mad; Gazzy had explained what the scene before us was to Iggy, who now looked like he was about seconds away from killing someone; and Fang... well, Fang still had his hand in mine and he looked like if anyone of them dared to touch any of the flock, he would snap their neck.

My gaze lingered on Fang and I squeezed his hand. He looked over at me, then seemed to realize we were now all in danger, and pulled me closer to him. I looked away from Fang, who was now back to glaring at Jeb, and looked at Nudge.

She was on the ground in front of an eraser who was grinning evilly at her. She looked so scared. A fresh wave of hatred towards the School filled me and I started running forward to Nudge.

Which was _not _a good idea. A flyboy kicked me in the stomach, sending me flying into a wall next to the flock.

_Ow._

_Max! Oh my god, are you okay?! _Angel shouted in thought.

_Yeah, sweetie I'm fine. _I was lying, but I had to save Nudge. I looked at Angel and she nodded. I stayed there for another minute until Angel sent me another thought.

_Max? Iggy wants to know if you can help him restrain Fang. _I hadn't looked over at Fang or Iggy since the flyboy had kicked me. Now I did, and I saw Fang looking from me to Jeb and back again. Then I saw Iggy holding onto Fang's arm with both hands, very obviously trying to keep him from running to me. Good thinking on Iggy's part.

I got up slowly, not even bothering to catalog my injuries. All I knew was that everywhere hurt. I slowly made my way over to the flock, mainly Fang. I finally reached them and immediately grabbed Fang's other arm.

Jeb looked at me and smiled. I glared icily at him, hoping to knock that smile off of his face. No such luck.

"Maximum." He said in a welcoming tone as he stepped forward with his arms open to me. Fang audibly growled.

"It's Max." I said angrily.

"Well, Maximum--" I cut him off.

"Max." I said through gritted teeth. His smile faltered and I inwardly cheered.

"You know I am terribly sorry this had to happen, but it does none the less." His face was smug.

"What the _hell _are you talking about?" I said, my teeth still gritted.

"This." He motioned to the flyboys and erasers who immediately jumped towards us.

_Oh crap. _I thought. There was no way we could get through all of those flyboys and erasers. And _then _get Nudge from the whitecoats who were already striding over to her. Iggy and I let go of Fang, who the took a step forward. It happened so fast from there.

The flyboys and erasers came running forward. We dealt some awesome kicks and punches, but someone was bound to get badly hurt (other than Nudge). I was just waiting to see who that someone was.

Then, out of nowhere, I felt a bad blow in between my wings. My breath came out of my mouth with a _whoosh _sound and now my wing joints hurt. I whirled.

_Omega._

Of course. Just to top all of this off, we had to add freaking _Omega _to the mix. The more the merrier! In this case though, the more would be enemies.

_Double crap._

My life just couldn't be easy. I remembered that he couldn't track fast objects, so I tried doing what I did back at the Itex in Germany.

I started waving my hand in front of his face. He just caught my hand and pulled my fingers back until there was a snap. I let out a cry of pain, unwilling to let tears fall.

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**Fang POV**

I heard Max cry out in pain. I spun around hoping it wasn't Max, but Omega instead. No, of course it couldn't be someone the flock hated. I saw that he had bent her fingers back, snapping several bones in her hand.

Now, he was in trouble. Anyone who hurts _my_ Max, is going to have to answer to me.

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**Well, there's another chapter! I would have made it longer, but I just wanted to get something posted for you guys. Thanks for reading, I will update as soon as possible. Please review!**


	7. Is She Dead?

**Sorry it took so long. I'm trying to make my chapters longer, so that's why. And I've been kind of busy. School started today, so that's not very fun and it's going to take up a lot of my time (I can already tell that I'm going to have a lot of homework).I hope you enjoyed the first six chapters. **

**I really am sorry about how long it's been taking to get chapters up, but please don't get mad at me for making cliff hangers or how I end chapters. Cliff hangers are kind of an easy way to flow from one chapter to the next, so if there is a cliff hanger, it probably means the next chapter is coming very soon.**

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**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, James Patterson does**

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**Max POV**

I was fading in and out of consciousness. It was due to the fact that after Omega finished snapping my fingers, hand and wrist, he kicked me really hard in the back of the head.

How did he achieve a kick that high, you may ask? Well, I was already on the ground from the pain in my fingers/hand/wrist. Yeah, not fun.

I looked up, hoping maybe he was gone and I could have a second to recover before joining the fight again. No, of course not. He was standing over me, smiling a very twisted smile. I was about to pass out, but that didn't mean I didn't have enough energy to make snide remarks.

"Oh, look who finally got emotions." I spat at Omega, remembering how absolutely emotionless he was back at Itex. His smile faded into an angry frown, and I realized instantly that maybe that hadn't exactly been smart to make that comment. He put a lot of force behind the kick that he then landed toward my stomach. I heard a few ribs crack and felt a burst of blood in my mouth. All of a sudden it was hard to breath.

_Not good. _I thought to myself right before a passed out.

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**Fang POV**

I was trying to get over to Max, but flyboys and erasers were making that virtually impossible. Omega had just kicked her in the back of the head and I could tell she was fading.

A few moments passed while nothing happened in the Max vs. Omega fight. I glanced around at the flock.

Angel was controlling the minds of several erasers and making them kill flyboys. The Gasman was beating up a bunch of erasers who tried to sneak up on Angel. Iggy was exploding both flyboys and erasers. Nudge... well, Nudge was still unconscious in the center of this. And I was kicking the butts of around twenty erasers and flyboys.

I glanced over at Max just in time to see her lips move as she said something to Omega, who had an odd smile on his face. The smile vanished and replaced itself with a murderous expression. And it looked like murder was exactly what he had planned. He suddenly kicked her full force in the stomach. I heard a few ribs crack and she coughed up blood.

_NO!! _I screamed in my head as her eyelids fluttered and she collapsed onto the ground.

This couldn't be happening. She couldn't be dead... right? No, she had to be alive. She couldn't leave me like this. I needed her. I dropped onto my knees next to her body, hoping for some proof that she was still alive.

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**Max POV**

Black. Everything was black. Was this death? Was I seriously dead? No, that's not possible. The indestructible Maximum Ride could **NOT** be dead.

It felt as though I didn't need to breath to live. I didn't need to see to know what was around me. God, whatever this was, was intensely boring. Whether, I was just unconscious or dead, I was about to fall asleep-- if that was possible right now-- of boredom.

Nothing to see, smell, hear, taste, you get the idea. What if I was stuck like this? Never able to see anything but black. Never able to move, or use any of my senses... ever again.

Wow, if that was what was going to happen to me, I really _was _going to be bored... still. I sighed, I think. But I couldn't hear it or actually tell that I was doing the action, my subconscious just told me I was, I guess.

_Wait a minute. If my mind is still active, then maybe I can contact Angel! _I thought.

_Angel! _I called mentally. I waited a few minutes... nothing. Maybe she was just fighting still. Using up the extra space in her brain to control the erasers brains. Yeah, that's why she's not answering. But how long ago did I pass out/die/whatever this is? Where I was- wherever that happened to be- there seemed to be no concept of time. The idea was so obviously foreign, which led me to believe maybe I actually was dead.

_Crap._

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**Fang POV**

Omega is dead. I **will **kill him. He will not live after hurting Max like that. Not that I had any idea whether or not she was dead or alive. But Omega was going to pay either way. Not very many things can render Max unconscious, so he must have hurt her badly.

_Fang, I don't think she's dead._ Angel thought to me.

_Can you hear her thoughts, Angel?_

_Well, no. But wouldn't I be able to tell if she actually was dead? Wouldn't we be able to feel something change in the world if Maximum Ride was gone? _Wow, that was deep for someone as young as Angel.

But she did have a point. I was sure I would be able to feel something change if Max was actually gone.

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**Max POV**

Ugh! Enough with this friggin' black already! God, this was getting annoying. I was just laying there, not able to move, at all. Wait, a minute! I can hear something!

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**Dun dun dun! Sorry, I know it's really short. I just wanted to get something posted and I've had a bit of writers block with this story. I keep having good ideas for another one, which I will probably type and post soon... if I can figure out a way to start it / Anyway, please review! I want to reach at least 35 reviews (hoping for 40 though) before I post the next chapter, so please review! Thank you!  
**


	8. Gone

**Oh my god! Angelapanda101 don't die! I'm posting now, see? My homework actually permitted me to do a little bit of writing... wow. I'm really sorry, but because of homework, chapters are going to take longer to post. **

**I also posted another Maximum Ride story, so please read and review that one too! I had a bit of writers block with this chapter too, so usually it would have been finished faster. I hope you like this one though!**

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**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, though that would be cool. Oh well, James Patterson does.**

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**Fang POV**

_Her thoughts are really quiet, but I can definitely hear something! _Angel shouted in my head.

_Great, so now I can go kill Omega! _I replied trying to put as much mock enthusiasm into it as possible. I carefully stood up and slowly turned to face Omega. He was going to die, I was **not **going to let him hurt Max ever again.

_Angel stay with her. _I looked over at Angel who nodded and dropped to her knees next to Max. Omega turned around with a wicked smile on his face. I growled at him.

"You will _**never**_hurt her again." I sounded deadly.

_Good. _I ran towards him and managed to get my fist to connect with his jaw. I heard a snapping noise. He spit out blood and a tooth, but I appeared to have broken his jaw.

_Well that's a start._ I thought to myself. He glared at me and I glared back. Before I could register his foot come up, it hit me in the ribs and I was sure it had broken a couple ribs.

_Ow. _I thought as I fell to my knees.

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**Max POV**

_Max? Please wake up, please. _Someone thought to me.

_Angel? _I thought back.

_MAX! _She shrieked happily in my head.

_Sweetie, what's going on? _I was confused as to where I was and what happened in the fight.

_You passed out after Omega hit you. Oh, and Fang's fighting him right now. _She sounded kind of worried at that last part. Wait, _Fang_ was fighting Omega?! That was NOT good, if Omega could render me unconscious by just hitting me, what would happen to Fang if Omega decided he was a stronger opponent? I had to see what was going on.

My eyelids fluttered open and I saw Angel smiling at me. I was laying on the ground on my back. I pulled myself up onto my elbows and winced at the pain in my ribs. I looked up at the Fang vs. Omega fight just in time to see Omega kick Fang in the ribs. I heard the snap and saw Fang drop to his knees.

"FANG!" I screamed and jumped to my feet, ignoring the piercing pain in my ribs. Omega had gone somewhere else, so killing him at the moment was not an option. I reached Fang just as his shoulders hit the ground. I dropped down next to him and put my hands on either side of his face.

"Fang... Fang, please... please... please wake up..." I whispered, close to tears. Which is odd, because I don't cry... very often. I pushed his hair out of his face. I was just sort of staring at his closed eyes and absentmindedly stroking his cheek, when his eyes slowly opened.

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**Fang POV**

I must have been out for five minutes, but when I woke up I thought I was dreaming. I felt soft hands stroking my cheek and I opened my eyes to see a beautiful angel over me.

_Max._ But I must be dreaming, she looked like she was about to cry. I didn't want to look away from Max, but when she hesitantly took her eyes off of me to look see the rest of the flock, I figured I probably should to. But I didn't, because as soon as she looked up she burst into tears.

Quietly, of course, but it was enough to make her take her hands off of my face to cover her own. I reached up and carefully took hold of one of her wrists. I squeezed it gently and she uncovered her face, tears still streaming down it.

She attempted a smile and I let go of her wrist to put my hand on her cheek. She looked surprised for a second, then reached towards my hand that was on her cheek. I thought she was going to pull my hand away from her face, but instead she put her hand over mine on her cheek.

I sat up and winced from the pain. She gave me a look that said, 'don't push yourself too hard.' I nodded.

I was sitting fully up now, and she was still crying. I dropped my hand from her cheek and opened my arms to her. She looked at me, confused, and I sighed.

I put my arms around her and pulled her onto my lap. Yes, there was pain in my ribs from moving like that, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the heartache that came with seeing Max cry. I stroked her hair and held her close.

"Fang. They're gone." She whispered sadly and so softly it was hard to hear her.

"Who? The whitecoats, erasers, flyboys, and _Omega_?" I whispered just as quietly, but growled around the word Omega.

"N-no... well, actually yes, b-but they t-t-took them Fang! They took the f-f-flock!" She cried. Max buried her head in my chest and I pulled her closer. The flock was gone. Max and I was the only one's free right now.

"Max," I whispered a few minutes later. "Why didn't they take us? Why only Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge, and Angel?" She sniffled. And pulled back a little to look at me.

"Angel. They already had the four of them in cages, but she got them to forget about us right before they knocked her out." She said quietly.

"Oh, Fang! It's all my fault! I should have rescued them! I should have--" I cut her off.

"Max, it's not your fault. If anything it's mine because you were over here with me." I looked down at the ground hating myself because I distracted her.

"No, I think it might actually be Omega's fault. Because the whitecoats got Nudge and Iggy while I was out, Gazzy right when I woke up, and Angel when you were out. So it's not yours or mine I guess." She shrugged and then winced.

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**Max POV**

After sitting on the ground for about ten minutes, we slowly got to our feet and just kind of looked around. Suddenly, we became aware of footsteps walking towards us. Fang wrapped his arm around my waist and protectively pulled me closer to him.

_Well, this is new. _I thought to myself. We slowly stepped back into the shadows, so to see us, someone would have to be five feet from us at farthest.

It turned out to just be a couple teenagers walking past here, but you can never be too careful. Once they past us, we walked forward and looked around. There was no one near us and we couldn't hear any cars coming, so we must be clear.

I scouted for security cameras, and upon finding none, opened my wings and took off with Fang right beside me. We landed on top of a high building about five minutes from the mall and looked out at the city.

There was no sign of the car that had taken Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge, and Angel. I kind of figured that. But we pretty much knew where they were going.

"The School?" I asked Fang, who nodded.

"The School." He replied gravely.

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**Hope you liked that chapter! Please review! I will try to update as soon as possible, but until then please read my other Maximum Ride story- Disappearing Act! Thanks!**


	9. Please tell me I'm Dreaming

**I'm so, so, so, so, so, so, so sorry it's taken me so long to update, but my computer broke or something. I had to take it to Geek Squad, so I'm not going to get it back for like 4 days. My computer wasn't letting me upload anything, so I'm on my parents' computer, trying to work on reports for school and I decided with some of the small amount of free time I had, I would update. So please enjoy this chapter!**

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**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride... James Patterson does.**

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**Nudge POV**

"Uhhnnhhhhh." Ow, what was going on? Why was I laying on a hard surface and why did I smell antiseptic-- oh no. No, I **CAN'T ** be at the school. No, it was just a dream. All I had to do was open my eyes and the smell would be gone, so would the memories of that guy who turned into an eraser.

_It's only a dream. _I kept repeating to myself.

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**Iggy POV**

_Ugh, what **is **that smell?! _I thought to myself as I woke up. Max must be trying to cook. That would probably smell this bad, right?

No, even Max's cooking couldn't smell like this. Even Max's cooking couldn't burn my nose as much as this smell could.

And there's only one place that could smell **this **bad of this stuff... The School. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks. Last time I had actually been in the school, they had messed with my sight, making me blind forever.

_This is going to be fun. _I thought to myself sarcastically. Why the hell do they even want us back? Wait, where is everyone else.

"Nudge?" I whispered, hoping a response would come from her.

"Ig? Is that you?" She whispered back. She sounded scared.

"Yeah, you okay?" I asked.

"Yep, I figure this will all go away in a minute, 'cause I know it's just a dream." She said cheerfully.

"Um, Nudge?"

"Yeah?"

"If this was a dream we would both be having the same one, which is virtually impossible. Therefore, neither you, nor I, are dreaming." I stated.

"Iggy? If I open my eyes do you think I'm going to see the school?" She said quietly. I sighed. I didn't want to have to be the one to tell her that she was actually here.

"Yes. I'm almost positive that you will." I answered hesitantly. I was kind of surprised that she hadn't opened her eyes already. I heard her whimper quietly, and assumed that she must have finally opened her eyes.

"Oh, Iggy. It's horrible!" She said softly. Her voice sounded closer that before. Suddenly, I felt her wing brush up against my arm.

"Nudge, are we in the same crate?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah. It's actually pretty big. You know, for, like, a dog crate." She chuckled sadly at her small joke and I was happy that she was able to. I took a deep breath through my nose and quickly regretted it. I winced as the smell burned my nose and eyes, which I had, unfortunately, opened.

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**Angel POV**

I was laying on a fluffy bed and Max was kneeling next to me telling me to wake up because Iggy had cooked breakfast. I smiled and sat up, stretching, only to bump my head on something. I blinked a few times to bring my sight into focus.

Then I realized it. The bed, Max waking me up, Iggy cooking breakfast... it all was a dream. Because I was some place obviously much, much worse than that. I knew, as soon as my eyes focused, that this was no nice house with a comfy bed... no, this was the school.

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**Well, there you go. I know it's not very long, but I really just wanted to get something posted for you guys. Hopefully, I can post more chapters on this and Disappearing Act (please read that and review it too!) very soon. So please review! It makes me happy and makes me update faster. Can we try for 50 before the next chapter? That would be very cool if we could get there. Well, I really hope you enjoyed the chapter!**


	10. Flying and Treadmills

**Okay, thank you to the few that reviewed. The reason I'm updating before getting to 50 reviews is because I'm a little annoyed at what some people have been telling me that I forgot about Max's hand... well, I'll have you know that I did NOT forget about it. **

**And if you pay attention, there isn't anything that says that she's using her hands. If it doesn't say anything about it, that usually means she's paying more attention to what's going on then her actual pain. **

**Sound like Max to you? Paying more attention to the flock and their wounds as opposed to hers? Yeah, thought you'd agree with that. Oh, and might I add that Max isn't even IN chapter 9! The hand doesn't come up until this chapter, of which I already knew what was going to happen.**

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**And now on a happier and nicer note I would like to thank kashiena, Emberwillow14, and macO'Neill for reviewing on a lot of my chapters, I really appreciate your reviews! **

**Now onto the next chapter!**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride, James Patterson does**

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**Max POV**

Fang and I were flying up pretty high. If we weren't in the situation it would be pretty cool: just us flying over everything. I sighed and turned towards Fang.

"Do you think they're okay?" I asked, my voice shaking a little at the thought of what could have happened. I wouldn't usually show this much fear, but it was Fang... I could tell him anything.

He turned his face to me and upon seeing my expression, his usually emotionless features softened. He gave me a small, somewhat sad smile and flew a little closer to me. We were now so close that our wings were brushing together.

"I think they'll be fine until we get there." He stopped talking and there was a comfortable silence.

"Hey, how's you're hand?" He said, worry seeping through his words. I hadn't really thought about it because I had been so worried about everyone else. And now that it came to mind, I realized just how much it hurt. I winced and he noticed.

"It's fine." I said through my teeth. The truth was that I was hurting all over. My ribs felt like they were on fire and my head hurt really bad too.

"Max, don't lie to me." He said. I took a deep breath, which hurt very badly.

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**Fang POV**

"Max, don't lie to me." I said when she tried to convince me that she was okay. I could tell she was in a lot of pain. I saw her take a deep breath and then she cried out in pain.

I flew under her really fast and caught her in my arms as she started to fall.

"Max?" I whispered. Her eyes were squeezed shut and her arms were around her middle. I knew right then that Omega must have kicked her there a lot harder then he kicked me.

She whimpered and leaned more into me. I could barely hear the next words she said.

"Please land." She said so quietly. I didn't respond, just did what she told me. I realized, as the ground came more into view, that this was where the cave that we stayed in when we came to get Angel was.

I flew into the cave and sat down. I held Max even closer to me as she started to cry.

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_**At the School a few hours later**_

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**Nudge POV**

The whitecoats came in early in the morning and pulled me and Iggy out of our cage. We were then dumped into separate cages. Later that day I was sitting in my cage when I heard footsteps coming.

My head shot up and I peered out of the bars of my cage. I saw a pair of feet walk through the room and stop at my cage. Instantly, fear filled me. The whitecoat bent down and unlatched my cage. I was then dragged out of the cage and pulled out of the room.

They hooked me up to a treadmill and kept shocking me to get me to run faster and faster. By the time I had been shocked thirteen times, I was about to cry.

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**The Gasman POV**

I woke up just in time to see a whitecoat dragging Nudge out of the room. I looked around at the cages to see if they actually had captured the whole flock. Nudge as obviously somewhere in the building; Iggy was in the cage next to mine; and Angel was in the cage across from me. Max and Fang weren't in here.

_Angel? _I thought. She looked up and met my eyes.

_Yeah Gazzy?_ She sent back.

_Where are Max and Fang?_ She looked at the ground and appeared to be hesitating.

_I-I don't know. _She thought to me, I saw her silently start crying.

_So you don't know if they're here? _I asked her.

_Meaning are they just in some other room here? No they aren't and they haven't been captured yet. _ She replied.

Well, then maybe we stood a chance if Max and Fang were still out there. Maybe they would come and save us like we did for Angel. Maybe they're on their way here now. Those thoughts really cheered me up.

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**I hope you enjoyed that chapter. Hopefully, I will be able to start updating more because I'm probably picking up my computer tomorrow. Please review!**


	11. Oh joy It's Back

**Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. I've been kind of busy with school. And I know Max and Fang were a kind of OOC, and normally I would try to avoid that, but for the purposes of this story at times they're going to be a bit OOC. Yeah, I thought I'd just let you know-- for future reference. ) Please enjoy this chapter and thank you for the reviews!**

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**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, JP does.**

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**Max POV**

I must have had more broken ribs than I thought, because this hurt so bad. I couldn't take deep breaths, it hurt too much. Also, I had just taken some of our time to try and save the flock with sitting on the floor if a cave. And to make everything worse, I was sobbing too much and Fang was trying to comfort me.

But it just felt so right to be in his arms... wait, what am I thinking?! No Max! He's your best friend, your second in command, not your boyfriend!

_He could be both._ Oh joy. The Voice was back. Because I need it so very much (note the sarcasm).

_Leave me alone Voice. I don't need life lessons right now._

_You know you like Fang as more than a friend, Maximum. _It continued sounding rather smug.

_Yeah, sure. _I said annoyed.

_Tell him Maximum._

_Tell who what? _I asked getting more pissed off by the second.

_Tell Fang you love him. You will be glad you did. _Wonderful. So today, not only was the Voice all for getting in on my personal life-- which I'm not sure I have... but it also sounded like a commercial.

_Screw you Voice! _I shouted at it... in my head of course.

A little while later, I stopped crying. I wasn't sure of what to do after that, I was sitting of Fang's lap- he was holding me to his chest- so was I supposed to push him off of me and stand up? That didn't sound like a good idea... so what should I do? My thoughts were interrupted by Fang.

"Max?" He whispered.

"Yeah?" I said, my voice shaking slightly.

"Do you think you're going to be okay?" He asked softly, worry seeping into his words. I pulled back a little and looked up at his face.

The worry wasn't just in his voice, it was actually showing in his face too. Very un-Fang like. He was usually emotionless and now I could see he seemed really worried... about me.

I blushed as I realized I had just been staring at him when he had asked me a question.

"Max?" He said.

"Oh, um... yeah. I'll be fine." I said quietly, looking at the floor as I spoke. He chuckled slightly.

"It's getting late." He said. I glanced out the opening of the cave and saw that he was right.

"We should probably get some sleep." He continued. I nodded.

"I'll take first watch." I said. He shook his head.

"No, you won't. I'm taking first watch, you go to sleep." He said. I glared at him and he raised his eyebrows at me as if daring me to argue with something that he could perfectly back up.

I sighed and climbed off of his lap. I saw him smirk out of the corner of my eye and rolled my eyes. I remembered something then.

"Fang!" I shouted.

"What?" He said quickly, spinning around to look at me with the worried look back on his face.

I smiled and held out my fist. He rolled his eyes and walked over to me. We stacked and tapped our fists. Then he turned back around to go take his watch.

"Fang?" I whispered a minute later.

"Yeah Max?" He said.

"Thanks." I could just barely make out his surprised expression.

"For what?" He asked.

"For everything." I responded simply and I saw the surprised expression become even more surprised.

"Oh, um... you're welcome?" He said. I laughed a little.

"Goodnight Fang."

"'Night Max." I smiled and curled up to sleep. I was much more at ease than I usually would have been. Every member of the flock had been captured except me and Fang. And yet I was smiling at a simple exchange of goodnight with Fang. Maybe I do like him as more than a friend...

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**I hope you liked that chapter. Sorry it was so short, I just wanted to get something posted. I was having a bit of writers block with this story, but I think I'm okay now so hopefully more soon! Please note that the rest of the flock will be in the next chapter. I just wanted to make a sort of FAX chapter. And I know this is the first time the voice has mad an appearance in this story, but the idea was that she hasn't heard from it in a long time and just now it's butting in-- like the voice does so well ) Please review!**


	12. Losing people

**I am so unbelievably sorry at how long that it's taken for me to get this chapter posted... I know I say that almost every time I post a new chapter, but I really am. I've been really busy and with Christmas and everything, I just haven't had any free time. But I hope that I'll start updating faster (No promises, but I will try). So with that, let's continue with the story!

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**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride

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**Max POV**

When I woke-up it was morning. Which was not good. It meant that Fang had been on watch all night. If he thought that I wasn't able to take watch then he was seriously going to get it this morning.

I sat up, wincing from the pain throughout my ribs. Wait, where _was_ Fang?

_Oh my God. He's gone. _I started freaking out.

What if the whitecoats had found us and taken him? Leaving me for some other sick test. I slowly stood up and walked out onto the ledge. I was looking at the sky hoping maybe to see Fang flying with the hawks.

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**Angel POV**

I was trapped at the school. Again. Why did this have to keep happening?

_What are they going to do? Are they going to hurt me? Please don't hurt me. Please don't hurt any of my family either. _I heard Gazzy thinking to himself. I hated this. It's awful to see your family like this.

_I hope Nudge is okay. They better not do anything to hurt her or I will kill them. _I heard Iggy think. He probably had no idea I was listening. I had no idea that maybe Nudge and Iggy might like each other like that. I couldn't think about that right now though.

It was then that I realized that I couldn't hear Nudge's thoughts through the messed up thoughts of the whitecoats. Which could mean either she was conscientious in another room or she was dead. Either way wasn't good.

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**Iggy POV**

I needed Nudge to come back. I could handle this a bit better if she was here. The tension in me was rising more and more by the minute.

I needed to at least hear her breathing or moving around in the crate next to me. But there was no one coming in the door with Nudge. Okay, I just needed to know that she was alive.

_Angel? _I sent the thought to Angel.

_Yeah Iggy?_

_Are you getting anything from Nudge? _She paused for a moment before responding.

_No Ig. I'm sorry. I can't hear her through the whitecoats. I'm sorry. _I was really scared now.

_It's okay. I'm just afraid something happened to her. _I put my head in my hands. We needed to get out of here right now.

_Are Max and Fang here? _I asked Angel.

_No, they weren't captured when we were. I think they're safe for now. _She sounded happy for them, but sad at the same time.

_Okay, I hope they get here soon._

_Me too Iggy. Me too._ Just then the door opened and I heard footsteps walk over and open a crate. There was a small whimper that could have been Angel or Gazzy. Then the door opened again.

"Angel?" I said quietly.

"Iggy, they took Gazzy," She whispered.

"But Nudge isn't back?"

"No. I'm scared, I don't know what's going on. I can't get anything that makes sense from the whitecoats," She sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

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**What will happen next? ****Sorry it's not really long, I just wanted to get something posted. ****I promise to try and update faster this time, but thanks for sticking with me guys. Please review!**


	13. they're not here

**Wow. I'm super, super sorry for taking soooo long to update. I've been really busy and haven't had a chance to actually sit down and work on this story in awhile. Anyway, please enjoy this chapter.

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**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride

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**Iggy POV**

I heard a clock somewhere near me and was concentrating on the second hand ticking.

I had no idea how long it had been since the whitecoats had taken Nudge, or since they had taken Gazzy. Angel had fallen asleep at some point, I could hear her shallow breathing from her crate.

_Tick, tick, tick, tick._ If I concentrated on the clock I wouldn't need to think about other stuff. I started counting each tick.

I heard Angel shift in her cage, but the the even breaths started back up. About what seemed like 10 minutes later I heard Angel whimper.

"Angel?" I whispered quietly. I heard her move and whimper again,

"Angel?" I said again. "Are you okay?" She moved again then finally spoke.

"Iggy, I'm scared." She squeaked.

"I know, so am I. Have Nudge and Gazzy come back yet?"

"No, I don't know where they are." She started crying.

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**Max POV**

_Where is he?_ I thought to myself.

I was in a total state of panic. It had been about an hour and I hadn't seen Fang. He wasn't flying with the hawks, I'd flown up there and checked. I flew in giant circles around the area trying to find him, but he was no where to be seen.

What was I supposed to do if Fang was captured by the school? I wasn't sure if I could save all of my flock from there without being in there myself. And if Fang was captured too then this would be even harder.

I flew over to a huge rock a little bit away from the cave and sat there trying to figure out what to do.

I couldn't live without my flock, which was why I was where I was in the first place. But now that I thought about it.... I **really** couldn't live without Fang.

If Fang had been injured while trying to go get food for us or something, I never would forgive myself. If **anything** had happened to him because of me, that would be absolutely awful.

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**Angel POV**

I was shaking and crying. Nudge and Gazzy had been gone for awhile. I wasn't sure if they were being tested on and were exhausted, or if they had just been moved to a different room and were fine, or if -I shuddered just thinking about it- were dead.

_No, they couldn't be dead._ I thought firmly to myself. _They would fight, they would not let dumb whitecoats kill them!_ It cheered me up thinking about that, so I kept repeating it to myself.

I looked over at Iggy, who looked completely miserable and sent him the same thought.

_They wouldn't be dead. They would fight, they would not let dumb whitecoats kill them! _ I told him. He sort of smiled at me and looked a little less miserable after that.

For the next few hours we kept repeating that thought to ourselves and it kept us going.

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**I hope you liked that! I'm really going to try to update faster this time (I know I say that everytime, but I'm REALLY going to try this time), so hopefully more to come soon. I'm sorry, again, about how long it took to get this chapter posted. Please forgive me and review?**


	14. Holding My Breath

**I know I always say this, but I really am sorry about how long it's taken me to update this story. I've been really busy with school stuff, so please stay with me. I'll try and update as often as possible on weekends. Anyway, on with the story!

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**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, JP does.

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**Fang POV**

Ugh, I screwed up. I went to go look for food for Max and I, but I hadn't realized how far I'd have to go to actually get good food.

I wanted to actually get her something good, so the when she woke up she would be in a good mood and we could kick butt at the school when we go to get the flock.

But now I was about an hour away from the cave, carrying way too much food while flying, and Max was probably awake by now wondering where I was.

When has splitting up ever done anything good for us? Never. Which is why that wasn't a good idea.

I don't think I could live with myself if the school captured Max while I was gone. This thought made me fly as fast as I could. I needed to get back to her.

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**Iggy POV**

_Tick, tick, tick, tick. _

I was still listening to the secondhand on the clock moving.

Nudge and Gazzy were **still** gone. It was just Angel and I sitting in the dog crates and who knew how much time until the whitecoats came and took another one of us.

A cold sweat broke out on the back of my neck.

If they took Angel what would happen to me? I'd be completely lost with no one in here with me.

But what would happen if they took me? Then six year old Angel would be alone. Both of those options sucked.

The door opened and I held my breath...

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**I know that was really short, but I wanted to get something posted today and I may post another chapter on this story later today. If I do, it will definitely be longer than this one. I promise you that. Thanks for reading this chapter. I hoped you enjoyed it. PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!**


	15. How to be Dead

**Okay, I told you I'd probably post another chapter today. So I'm not going to waste a lot of time on a disclaimer and AN. And now-- on with the story!

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**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride

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**Fang POV**

I finally got back to the cave with the food. The hope was that she would still be in the cave, no more injured then she had been before, and she would be happy that I brought her back food.

I landed on the ledge outside and walked into the cave. She was in a different place from where I left her, but still in the cave. I walked closer to her and gasped.

It looked like Max was dead.

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**Max POV**

I had been looking for Fang for two hours. Flying that entire time and let me tell you; flying when you have major anxiety, you're in pain, you're scared, and you're hungry is no picnic. And it wears you out **really** fast.

I landed back on the ledge and sat down inside of the cave.

If Fang was captured, then maybe they knew where I was too. Maybe they'd be coming for me too. 'They' being whitecoats, erasers, flyboys, Omega, or anything else the school could come up with.

There was no evidence of a fight though and Fang definitely would have fought if they'd tried to capture him. I thought about running, getting out of this cave and finding some place where they couldn't find me.

But something stopped me. I think it was the thought that maybe Fang hadn't been captured. I also thought about the fact that if they captured him and were coming back for me, I would go just so that I could be with him... I mean them. Them, not him. Ugh, what is wrong with me!

_Nothing is wrong with you Max._ The voice picks some of the worst times to butt in.

_What do you want voice?_

_Max, if Fang were captured, don't you think they would have taken you too? _ Why couldn't it just tell me whether they had taken him or not?

_I don't know! This is the school we're talking about! They captured Angel that one time and didn't try to take the rest of us until later! I don't know how they think! _I was really annoyed.

The voice probably knew if they took him, but of course it wanted me to figure it with very little help.

I doubt it will surprise you to know that it didn't respond. I dropped my head into my hands and tried to think of something else. It didn't work. At all. Because just then I heard footsteps outside.

_Oh my God, they've come for me now!_

_Think Max._ **That** was all the voice had to offer in this situation. Think Max?! Seriously, that was an awful thing to tell me to do right--- wait, if I just slow down and think maybe I can figure out how to get out of this.

Okay, how have I gotten free before? I thought for a second and then it dawned on me.

The isolation tank. I had pretended to be dead and everyone believed it. I could do that now. The same thing. It couldn't be too hard, right?

I tried to lay in a position that didn't look like I was sleeping, but instead dead. Then I slowed my breathing and just made everything slow down. I think I may have fallen asleep. I'm not really sure.

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**I hope you liked this chapter! There's going to be stuff on what was happening with Iggy in the next chapter, but this was all I had time to write for today and I wanted to get a somewhat longer chapter posted before the end of the day. Thanks for reading! Please review!!! **


	16. Comfort or Love?

**I'm soooooo sorry! I kept getting distracted whenever I was going to update this story, but I'm updating now! I'm not going to waste time with this AN, so please enjoy this chapter!

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**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, James Patterson does  


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**Fang POV**

"Oh my god. No, please no. Not Max, please. I need her. I love her. You can't do this to me." I whispered softly, not sure who I was talking to.

I set everything I had been carrying down and knelt next to Max. I could feel tears coming to my eyes.

"Max, please, please, please, don't leave me." She was pale and her hands were freezing. I sat down and pulled her onto my lap, cradling her. I held her like that for a few minutes.

Suddenly her eyelids fluttered open. I gasped.

"Fang?" She whispered.

"Max, what happened?"

"I thought you were people from the school. I was so scared they had already gotten you." I held her close and buried my face in her hair. She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled herself closer to me.

"I'm so sorry." I said. " I should have told you before I left." She shook her head.

"No Fang, I shouldn't have scared you." I smiled at her and she blushed. Then I thought of something. What if she had heard what I said?

"Max?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you hear me when I came in?"

"What do you mean? Like were you talking or something?"

"Yeah."

"No, I didn't hear anything. What did you say."

"Oh nothing. I was just wondering if you had actually been unconscious." She thought about this for a second.

"I guess I was unconscious." She shrugged. We were both silent for a second and then I remembered why I had left in the first place.

"I got food, you know." She slid off of my lap and I stood up. I held out my hand and she looked up at me with the most beautiful smile on her face.

_Yeah, I do love her. _ I thought to myself. She took my hand and I gently helped her to her feet. She didn't let go of my hand once she was standing, but I'm not complaining.

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**Iggy POV**

"Grab the blind one." I heard a whitecoat say and I almost growled. I heard the door of the cage and one of them roughly pulled me out of it.

"Which cage am I putting it in?" Another whitecoat asked.

"That big one." The first one replied. I heard a latch being undone on a different cage. I was pushed into the bigger cage.

All they had done was put me in a different cage. I couldn't imagine them being nice enough to put me in a bigger cage.

"Go get the other one." One whitecoat barked. Did he mean Angel? The door to the room opened again as a whitecoat left.

A minute later the door opened again and I heard a whimper. Then the door of the cage I was in opened and they threw something in, then closed the door again. I heard another cage open and a cry.

_Iggy!_ Angel cried in my head.

_Angel! Are they taking you?!_ I asked, starting to panic.

_Yes!_ She replied and the cry faded as the whitecoats left the room with Angel.

"Iggy?" A small voice said. I gasped.

"Nudge?"

"Oh Iggy, it's so awful!" She said quietly. I reached out and pulled her closer to me. She started crying.

"Sh, sh, it's alright. I know, you'll be fine. I'll make sure you are." I said, trying to reassure her. She sniffled.

"Thank you Iggy." I don't know how long we sat like that, with me holding her, but soon enough the door opened again. Nudge gently pushed me toward the back of the cage.

"Don't make a sound." She said so quietly that it took my amazing hearing to pick it up. I could hear the whitecoats' footsteps on the floor as they dragged something in.

"Put it in that cage." One of the said.

A cage door was opened and I heard a small _oof _as someone was pushed in. I heard the whitecoats turn to leave when one of them paused and spoke.

"Wait... wasn't there...."

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**Well, I hope you liked that chapter! Please review! And I will update as soon as I can! Oh and if you could all please read my other stories too, Disappearing Act and Dreams Sometimes Seem Better! Well, I'm going to try to update them now, but, again, I hope you enjoyed this chapter  
**


	17. An Attempt to Plan

**Okay! On to the next chapter! I love being able to update my stories faster and hear what you all have to say about each one. Anyway, new chapter, hope you like it!

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**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride... These things are annoying.

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**Max POV**

"Fang, there's got to be some way to get inside without being captured." I said in between bites. He nodded and kept eating. I rolled my eyes.

He was going to choose to be silent now, just when I needed him to help me think of a plan. How like Fang to do that.

I thought hard about some way into the school and wished that when they had captured us before, I hadn't been unconscious. But I had been and there was nothing I could do about that.

Once we finished eating, we sat there for a minute, staring off into space. Not literally of course, but you know what I mean.

I couldn't seem to think of a plan to get in. I needed to think of something, anything to get my flock out of there. And if I didn't get out, that was okay. But I decided not to dwell on that right this moment.

My mind was in complete turmoil. Different plans of how to break in and grab the flock ran through my head, each one as impossible as the next.

What would I do if I got in there and not all of them were stuck in cages? What if one or two of them was being tested on when we got in there? What would I do then? I sighed and dropped my head into my hands.

"Headache?" Fang asked. I shook my head.

It definitely wasn't one of the grenade headaches. This was just a normal headache, probably from too much stress, not enough sleep and too much going on in my head. Which wasn't a good combination.

But if I told him it was a headache, there was no way I'd be able to convince him that I wasn't going to be on the ground, looking like I was having a stroke, in five minutes.

I took a deep breath and admitted something that I very rarely said.

"I don't know what to do." I said quietly. Suddenly Fang's arm was around me, pulling me closer to him. It felt really nice.

"I know," he said softly. "But we're going to do this together and we'll figure this out together." I noticed that he put a slight emphasis on the word together. I nodded and leaned into him, resting my head on his shoulder.

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**Angel POV**

_Iggy! _I cried in his head as a whitecoat pulled me out of my cage.

_Angel! Are they taking you?! _I could tell he was starting to panic.

_Yes! _ I cried, praying that he knew Nudge was actually in a cage with him. A whitecoat dragged Gazzy past me and I reached out for my brother only to be yanked away.

These _people_, if you can even call them that, like to torture kids. They're all evil, sadistic spawns of Satan to put it lightly. I got that phrase from Max, by the way.

I was then dragged into a room with a treadmill and a whitecoat grinning like an idiot.

"Drop it on that table." He said. Oh no, it was Reilly, the guy who had wanted to dissect my brain last time I was here. I was becoming more and more afraid by the minute.

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**I hope you enjoyed that chapter! Sorry it was so short. Please review! And it would be totally awesome if you could read my other stories too!**


	18. Over the Rainbow

**OK! I'm back! Sorry about my lapse into not caring, I was just.... I don't even know. Anyway, I'm writing now, and we'll see where the story goes! I hope you enjoy this chapter!!  


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**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, James Patterson does.

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**Nudge POV**

"Wait... Wasn't there another one?" I heard one of the whitecoats ask.

"Well how many are there right now?" Another replied. For supposed scientists, they weren't very smart.

"There's supposed to be four.... Reilly has the little one, then there are two in the cages. Where's the blind one?" The whitecoats started to walk around the room very confused and I stayed in front of Iggy. I didn't want them to hurt him more.

Eventually one looked into our crate. He glared at me.

"Well, did you think you could hide it?" He asked in a very condescending tone. I didn't say anything. The other whitecoat came over and looked in, seeing Iggy behind me.

"Why you little---!!" He opened the door of the crate in rage and yanked me out. I yelped as my head hit the side of the crate.

"You're going to get it for that!" He yelled, outraged, as they dragged me out of the room.

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**Max POV**

I'm not really sure how long I stayed leaning on Fang, but I do know that it just felt right.

_No Max! Snap out of it, he's your best friend! Nothing more! _I yelled at myself mentally.

_**But he could be more... **_The voice interjected. I sighed inwardly.

_Voice, now really isn't a good time to be butting in. I'm trying to figure out how to rescue my flock, I don't need your opinion on me and Fang!_

_**Remember the Institute Max?**_

_Duh, of course I do._

_**Remember 'there's a pot of gold beneath every rainbow'? Think over the rainbow for this. **_Why couldn't the voice just give me a straight answer for once?

"Think over the rainbow...." I repeated out loud.

"What?" Fang looked very confused. I giggled at his expression for a second and then explained.

"Remember how at the Institute, the computer screen said 'There's a pot of gold beneath every rainbow'?" He nodded.

"Well the voice said to think over the rainbow for this. For saving the flock from the school." He considered this for a second and then he nodded.

"So we get in through the roof."

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**Well there ya go. Sorry it isn't too terribly long, but I really wanted to get something posted. Thanks for sticking with me during my period of not writing!!! You guys are amazing!! Please review!!**

**x  
**


	19. Spawns of Satan

**Hello people of the world! I feel so so so so so so so so so so so so incredibly awful about not writing in FOREVER. Seriously, it's been months since I've updated. But I was going through my e-mail the other day and I found a bunch (and I mean something like 30 e-mails) that I hadn't deleted that were all about having review alerts and stuff. Anyway, I read through all of them and reading what you all said about previous chapters- granted these all were from around a year ago- well, it made me smile. So, what's the point of this ultra long AN at the beginning of this chapter you may ask? Well, it's my sincere apology to any and all readers who have been waiting for me to update because I remember how annoying it was to be waiting and waiting for someone to update a story and they NEVER did. In my defense I have been incredibly busy with school (high school's a bitch and sophomore year is no picnic). I changed schools, which meant I had to change school systems over the summer, this also meant that my summer was about a month shorter and I was in upstate New York (where I was lucky to even have phone reception) visiting family and I didn't have a computer . . . And I can make all the excuses I want, but it doesn't change anything. On the plus side, while on the plane I may have written a few interesting ideas in a notebook, so there may be some new stuff heading your way. Anyway, I'm on winter break right now and rereading the Maximum Ride series, so I figured I'd write a bit. Enjoy!

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**Disclaimer: I don't own MR or any of James Patterson's characters (I'll admit, I kind of missed these…)

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**Nudge POV**

The whitecoats unlatched the cage I was in with Iggy and dragged me out. I cried out as one roughly threw me to another and I saw Iggy grab the bars on the dog crate.

They pulled me out of the room and walked briskly down the hall. This couldn't be good. Within the next minute of so we stopped in front of a door and one of the whitecoats pulled it open.

They shoved me inside and a different whitecoat looked up, confused.

"I didn't need this experiment until later. Why did you bring it now?" He asked.

"This one was acting up. Appeared to be trying to hide the blind one."

"Hm. Well that changes things," he then turned his gaze to me. "There will be some consequences for this."

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**The Gasman POV**

"Iggy?" I whispered.

"Gazzy? Oh thank _God._ Where is everyone?" He replied.

"I- I don't know." My lower lip started trembling. "They were real mad when they took Nudge though. And they wouldn't even let me grab Angel's hand when they dragged me past her." Iggy grimaced.

I knew he hated this place more than any of the rest of us… And we hated it more than anything.

The door opened again before either of us could say anything more. A whitecoat walked in, though we couldn't see which one. They stopped at Iggy's crate. Jeb bent down and I did my best to scowl at him.

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**Iggy POV**

I knew whatever whitecoat this was had stopped directly in front of my crate. The footsteps made it sound like a man. And I heard their knees cracking as they bent down in front of my crate.

"Iggy, I feel as though we need a conversation. You too Gasman." Jeb. He then opened the latch on my crate and lightly held onto my elbow as he guided me over to Gazzy's crate.

I heard him open that latch too and Gazzy getting up. He opened the door and led us both to only what I could assume to be a conference room, judging by the large wooden table and rolling chairs.

"Hold on one second." Jeb opened the door and another whitecoat came in. "Watch them for a minute." He said to this new whitecoat as he left the room.

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**Angel POV**

_Zap._

Reilly shocked me again as I started to slow down on the treadmill.

I couldn't understand why he always wanted to watch me run on this thing. I couldn't go on much longer, I had been on this treadmill for hours.

Suddenly the door opened and Jeb walked in. I glared at him as much as I could while I started to see stars.

Jeb turned off the treadmill and I sat down as he talked quietly to Reilly, who looked a little angry.

He turned to me and started ripping electrodes off of me while I sat wincing every time. Jeb looked disapprovingly at him as he did this.

Once he was done, Jeb handed me a little paper cup of water.

"Here sweetie, I know you must be thirsty." I glared at him but took the water anyway. "You're going to come with me now." He said and, with one hand under my elbow, he led me out of the room.

We walked into a conference room when Gazzy and Iggy were sitting. Gazzy ran toward me and hugged me.

Jeb said something that I couldn't quite make out to another whitecoat, who then nodded and left the four of us in the room.

Jeb motioned for me to sit. I sat down between Iggy and Gazzy and glared at him.

"Where's Nudge?" Iggy practically growled. Jeb chuckled.

"Don't worry, she's on her way."

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**I feel like such a loser because I had to go back and completely reread my own story to figure out what had been happening in it. Woo. Points for me. ****(sarcasm) Anyway, thanks so much for reading! Please just hang with me while I attempt to update more!**

**Oh! And please, please, please review! They make me happy and want to write more!**


	20. Go With The Flow

**And here, my lovely readers, is another chapter! *****Gasp* Two in one month! It's a new record! Kidding, Kidding. I wanted to get another chapter up on everything before it became 2011! And I start driving very, very soon, so there will be more places I can go and less time to write. Well I hope not, but I'm so ADD that I always am distracted. ANYWAY, ON WITH THE STORY!

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**Disclaimer: I don't own MR

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**Max POV**

Fang and I flew toward the school and I swore I could actually feel evil slowly start radiating toward us. God, am I crazy or what? Actually, wait don't answer that.

Anyway, as we flew toward the school my heart started pounding faster and faster. I knew we would be facing a fight. And I wasn't so sure how we would do.

What if the flock was injured? What if the school had created some new kind of guards that were a lot better at attacking us than the Erasers? What if they'd already killed the flock?

I swallowed hard and tried to shut down this last thought.

_**Stop worrying Max. Just go with the flow.**_

_Voice, do you have nothing better to do than butt in on my thoughts and read bumper stickers? _I thought, annoyed. Of course, this won't surprise you, but the voice did not answer.

But what did going with the flow have to do with anything. Hm. I stopped flapping as a felt and air current. It was carrying me a few degrees in a different direction than I had been traveling. Was this what the Voice meant?

_**Yes Max. Go with the flow, or the current in this case. **_Maybe I was imagining it, but the Voice sounded pretty smug having thought of that.

Fang looked at me.

"Why are you changing course?"

"The Voice started telling me to 'go with the flow.'" You better bet I used air quotes around that. "I felt the current and went with it and the Voice said that was what I was supposed to do." He blinked, shrugged, and coasted into the current as well.

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**Nudge POV**

What was this whitecoat going to do with me? He said that there was going to be consequences. What was that supposed to mean? Was he going to try to kill me? Was he going to hurt me? Oh my god.

The other whitecoats had left the room and this grabbed my arm and pushed me down into a chair.

It was weird because he wasn't throwing me into the chair, but actually being somewhat gentle. You know, as gentle as a whitecoat can be forcing a bird kid into a chair.

"Alright. Now why were you trying to hide the blind human-avian hybrid?" He reminded me a bit of Jeb before he rescued us from the school before. I didn't know what to think.

"Well, I care about the flock," I was startled into saying. "I would rather risk myself than him." The whitecoat nodded.

"Hold this." He said handing me something that looked like the end of those cute little things that doctors put in their ears to listen to your heart. Stethoscopes? Isn't that what they're called. Anyway, I held onto it and watching him.

He flicked a little switch on and I heard a slight humming noise coming from this small machine.

"What is this?" I asked after a few minutes of just sitting there.

"I'm going to ask you some questions. I want you to answer them truthfully." I nodded, confused. "Why do you care so much about the rest of the human-avian hybrids?"

Okay, so this question really threw me for a loop. I mean, why do I care about them? Why were whitecoats asking me this? Half of them don't even know we can talk.

"Well, they're my family," I started slowly. "They mean everything to me. I don't want anything to happen to them. Without them I'm not whole myself." Wow. I was starting to sound like Max when she got mushy. And usually I talk more. Maybe I'm maturing.

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**Iggy POV**

"So? Where is she?" I growled at Jeb after sitting in this conference room for 20 minutes. Jeb looked at his watch.

"Be patient. She'll be here eventually."

"Eventually? That's not good enough. If she's hurt, I swear—" I was cut off by Jeb holding a hand up.

"She'll be fine. Iggy if I'm not mistaken, I believe you're developing feelings for Nudge. Is this true?" I felt my face burn and I sat down.

Was I developing feelings for her? How would that even work? She's like my sister, right? And I'm blind. Why would she want a blind guy for a boyfriend?

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**Angel POV**

Iggy was being really hard on himself. I could hear him thinking about how he thought he didn't think he was good enough for Nudge. But he was. She loved him too. I knew.

_Nudge? _I tried to send to her. Nothing. I was getting worried about her. I couldn't show Jeb though. I still wasn't sure if we could trust him or not.

"Why are we here Jeb?" Gazzy sounded tired and like five years older. I just wanted Max and Fang to show up and get us out of here.

"Well I need to speak to you all, but we must wait till the whole flock is here."

"But Jeb, the whole flock isn't here. Max and Fang got away." He blinked at Gazzy.

"I know. But if I'm correct, they should be here within a few minutes. They'll probably try to storm the back doors or get in through the yard." I looked at him.

How could he possibly know that? The only way he would know would be if he were tracking Max or Fang. Wait. They couldn't. Could they?

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**Thank you for reading this chapter! More coming soon! Please review!**

**x**


	21. Four Together

**Disclaimer: I don't own MR. JP does.**

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**Nudge POV**

"Interesting, they seem to be establishing some sort of familial dynamic amongst this group of hybrids. This is something we've never seen before," I heard the whitecoat mutter to another, as they took notes.

Then the door opened and another entered. They all nodded to each other and the new whitecoat led me from the room.

We started walking down the long hall to a different room. I was trying my hardest to search for escape routes and exits, but everything was starting to look the same.

The whitecoat stopped me outside of some double doors. I started imagining operating rooms and other horrible things on the other side.

But as he pushed the door open, I was met by the smell of hot chocolate and I looked up to see Jeb smiling down at me.

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**Max POV**

Fang and I had been flying for a while now and finally the school was coming into view. The last time we had been there, I hadn't realized just how sinister it looked from the air. It was this hulking, white building, in the middle of the desert, with miles of (electrocuted) wire fences.

_Well, Voice, what now? _I thought as we continued to ride the air current closer. It will not surprise you to hear that the Voice did not respond.

"So what's the big plan?" Fang shouted to me over the wind. I smiled guiltily at him. He smirked back. That was as close to an admission of not having a plan as I got, and he knew it.

* * *

**Angel POV**

"Nudge, how nice to see you." I watched as she stared up at Jeb.

We would never be able to get used to him being alive, but the fact that he was here and seemed to be one of THEM made it even weirder.

But at least four of us were together.

We all watched as Jeb brought Nudge in and sat her down next to Iggy, who reached out for her as soon as he heard her sit in that chair.

"It's so good to see you kids," Jeb started. I'm happy to say that we all stared meanly back. "I'm sure you're all anxious to hear why I've gathered you here, but I'm afraid it'll have to wait until Max and Fang arrive. Any minute now."

* * *

**Oh goodness. My apologies to all for the wait.**

**x**

**H**


End file.
